Dowry harassment, rioting, use of obscene words made compoundable offences in M.P.

Ram Nath Kovind gave nod to the 2019 State legislation in June.

August 10, 2022 09:58 pm | Updated August 11, 2022 12:03 am IST - New Delhi

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. File

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. File | Photo Credit: PTI

Former President Ram Nath Kovind on the advice of the Union Home Ministry in June assented to a 2019 legislation passed by the Madhya Pradesh Assembly that makes the criminal offences of dowry harassment, rioting and use of obscene words in the State compoundable offences. In a compoundable offence, parties involved can effect a compromise while the case is under trial in the court.

The Malimath Committee constituted by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2000 also favoured making Section 498A of IPC (dowry harassment) a bailable and compoundable offence.

The Criminal Law (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced by the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh Assembly on July 24, 2019, months before the government collapsed in 2020.

The former President gave his assent to the Bill on June 28, people familiar with the matter said. The present M.P government did not withdraw the Bill after coming to power. Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains and State Home Minister Narottam Mishra did not respond to queries by The Hindu.

The Union Home Ministry examines the Bills passed by State Assemblies that may be repugnant with Central laws before they get President’s assent to become a law. As per rules, the President has to go with the advice given by the Council of Ministers, in this case represented by the Home Ministry, before assenting to or rejecting a State legislation.

The M.P Bill proposed amendments to several sections of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and The Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

The statement of objects and reasons when the Bill was tabled in the Assembly said it proposes to make offence under section 498A of IPC compoundable as the complaint in such offences is the outcome of matrimonial dispute. “In spur of moment FIR [First Information Report] gets lodged. On many occasions after the cognisance of such offence the woman wants to make compromise in such offence but due to lack of provision they have to go a long way to High Court, which creates hindrance in resolving matrimonial dispute,” it said.

It further said that the Madhya Pradesh Amendment Act of 1999 made Sections 147 IPC, (rioting) 294 IPC (obscene songs or words in a public place) and 506 IPC (criminal intimidation) compoundable but in 2009, the Union government amended the CrPC which again led to such offences becoming non-compoundable, leading to a backlog of cases in the court.

“Consequence is that after compounding the main offences, cases are pending for long times unnecessarily in the court for adjudication... Therefore, it is desirable to again amend Section 320 of the CrPC, 1973 to make aforesaid cases compoundable,” it said.

Both IPC and CrPC come under the concurrent list which allows the State governments to amend them.

The Bill states that certain provisions of CrPC, 1973 mandates physical presence of an accused (undertrial prisoner) or his pleader for recording evidence or other proceedings. It adds that due to shortage of police personnel, many times the accused are not produced before the court for scheduled hearings. “Consequently, the case gets adjourned. Due to the advancement of information technology, it is desirable that the deposition of witnesses and examination of accused and other proceedings be taken optionally through the audio-video electronic means, instead of mandatory provision of their physical presence in court,” it said.

The Bill says the facility will be effective in coping with the problem of shortage of police officials and also be effective for speedy trial of cases. Therefore, suitable amendments were proposed in sections 273, 278, 281, 291, 305, 317 and 353 of the CrPC.

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